Bangla to be official in Jharkhand in 45 days

The Bengali-speaking residents of Jharkhand have been fighting for securing second official language status for 'Bangla' have some reason to cheer- the Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Alamgir Alam has issued a 45-day deadline to the government to complete formalities for declaring 'Bangla' the second official language of the state after Urdu.

The Speaker gave the ruling after voicing of the demand and subsequent dharna by legislators. Annapurna Devi of the RJD and C P Singh of the BJP raised the issue of according second official language status to 'Bangla' through a joint call attention motion in the Assembly on December 18.

Deputy chief minister, Stephan Marandi said in the Assembly that government was committed to make 'Bangla' the second official language, but non-availability of the census report of 2001 had led to the matter being delayed.

The reply of the deputy chief minister failed to pacify the agitated members in the House who sat in dharna on the floor of the House. The Speaker asked why the older census record was not being considered as an official document for according second official language status to 'Bangla'.

The Treasury bench failed to convince the Speaker who subsequently gave his ruling on the issue of the second official language status to 'Bangla'.